Kindergarten-Grade 4 When Jackie Grace puts down his pirate adventure book and heads for the bathtub with model ship in hand, children will sense, from the first frame (the illustrations are boxed in various sizes, comic-book style), that anything is possible. . .and impending. Indeed, what Faulkner has done quite impressively is to create an uproarious bathtub fantasy, navigating children with skill and humor through this dizzying voyage. Zany as this creation is, it is also carefully controlled with a storyteller's sure sense of plot direction. Jackie is caught by surprise when a white-haired captain and his crew of two jump into Jackie's tub (their ship has been taken over by pirates and a storm is blowing up). Jackie is incredulous and indignant, but he is swept up (as readers will be) in demon waves, rough seas, and a cannonball attack by the pirates. But when Jackie takes over, he wins back the ship single-handedly. His mother calling him to get out of the tub ends the voyage. The visuals (watercolor and pen-and-ink with lots of cross-hatching) are so strong and readable that the book will delight children who have a penchant for exhuberant animation of the type for which Steven Kellogg is noted. It will certainly hold great appeal for beginning-reader adventure seekers and for older readers who don't mind being seen with a picture book. Susan Powers, Berkeley Carroll Street School, BrooklynCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.